CV

JON BUCK

Education and Qualifications

2012 Elected Fellow of Royal Society of Sculptors

1994 Elected Associate of Royal Society of. Sculptors

1990 Elected Member of Royal West of England Academy

1980 – 1981 Fellow in Sculpture, Gloucester College Art and Technology, Cheltenham

1979 – 1980 MA Fine Art, Manchester Polytechnic

1976 – 1979 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham

Biography

Jon Buck was born and grew up just south of Bristol at the mouth of the river Avon. His was the first generation to break with the family tradition of becoming Bristol Channel Pilots. From an early age he was determined to go his own way and it was his deep fascination with the natural world that led to his first employment at Bristol Zoo. Studying the animals and birds at close quarters gave Buck the opportunity to indulge in his passion for drawing. Gradually he became disillusioned with the unethical nature of the work and after initially enrolling on a science degree he transferred to a Fine Art Foundation course at Cardiff in 1975.

After finishing his first degree at Nottingham Jon Buck took his Masters at Manchester and was then awarded a year’s Fellowship at Cheltenham School of Art. At this point he began showing with the Nicholas Treadwell gallery based in London. In the early years of the eighties he became a part of a disparate group of artists for whose work Treadwell coined the term ‘Superhumanism’.

In 1984 Buck was awarded a grant by Southern Arts to become Artist in Residence for the Borough of Thamesdown in a regeneration area of Swindon. This placement gave him the opportunity to make his first large-scale work and to take on the challenge of making art for a public place.

Up until this point all his sculptures had been cast in resin and glass fibre. The Swindon experience was to show how inadequate these materials were for art in an external environment.  This led to Buck adopting bronze as his preferred media and into developing a close collaboration with his casting foundry, Pangolin Editions. This relationship has been central to Buck’s attempt to use traditional processes to make contemporary images.

Jon Buck has continued to work in both the public and private realms and for over twenty years was  Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Southampton Solent University as well as a visiting lecturer at various Art Colleges and institutions. His influences have been many but central to his work has always been his interest in Man’s connection to the natural world. In art he has always believed in some sort of visual ‘lingua franca’ and has been fascinated with art outside the Western tradition, particularly African sculpture. In addition, the art of prehistory, outsider art and the drawings of children have all affected his way of thinking about making art.

He has worked on a number of occasions as artist consultant with Camlin Lonsdale Landscape Architects, in conjunction with planners and other artists, most notably on the successful Caerphilly Town Centre Enhancement Scheme in 1995. In 1998 he was the artist chosen to be part of a team for the enhancement and refurbishment of Deal Pier. This involved a major public consultation scheme and collaboration with planners and landscape architects from Kent County Council. The resulting work won the 1999 Rouse Kent Award for Public Art.

In 2004 Buck was invited to deliver a sculpture workshop at Makerere University, Kampala on behalf of the Ruwenzori Sculpture Foundation. In November 2007 and February 2009 he returned to Uganda to undertake further design research into tribal and clan totems for the Foundation and to oversee the translation of his designs into a series of bronze casts. The Foundation is a charitable trust that promotes the arts in East Africa and cultural exchange between African and European artists.

From 1980 onwards Buck has exhibited regularly, mostly in Europe and America and has contributed to some of the recent significant sculpture exhibitions in Britain.

 

Selected Exhibitions

2024

‘Dreaming in Fire’ Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. One of six invited artists

2023

‘Fifteen’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

‘Focus on Four’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

2022

‘Material World’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘Patterns of Change’ Solo Exhibition, Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

‘Back to the Cave’ Clearwell Caves, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. Curated by Gallery Pangolin

2021

‘Craving Colour’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

‘Off the Wall’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘March of Mutability’ Solo Exhibition, Museum in the Park, Stroud. Curated by Gallery Pangolin

2020

‘Sculptors’ Works on Paper’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

‘Nature Unwrapped’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

2019

‘Jon Buck: Time of Our Lives’ Solo Exhibition across two venues: Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire and Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

‘Sculpture Open’ Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

2018

‘Sculptors’ Maquettes’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘Decade: Pangolin London’s 10 Year Anniversary’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

2017

‘ARK’ Chester Cathedral, Chester

‘Focus on the Figure: Sculptors’ Prints and Drawings’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

2016

‘Jubilee’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire. One of thirty invited artists invite to create a piece in sterling silver

‘Nature of the Beast’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘Sculpture in the Garden’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

2015

‘Coded for Colour’ Solo exhibition Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

‘Toro’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘Sculptors’ Prints & Drawings’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

2014

‘Crucible 2’ Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester

‘Without Words’ Solo exhibition Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘Sculptors’ Prints & Drawings’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘Sculpture Showcase’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

2013

‘Sculptors’ Prints & Drawings’ Part of Impress ’13 International Printmaking Festival, Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘Drawn’ Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

2012

‘Turning Inside Out’ Solo exhibition Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

Selected to contribute to ‘Sculptors’ Drawings & Works on Paper’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

 2011

‘Making a Point: the Point of Making’ Solo exhibition Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire. Accompanied by a specially

published book of the same title

Sculptors’ Prints’ In Conjunction with Impress 2011 National Printmaking Festival, Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘Beast’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

2010

Invited to contribute to ‘Crucible – the Sculpture Show of the Decade’, Gloucester Cathedral

One of four artists featured in ‘Figuring it Out’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

‘Stirred for a Bird’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

 2009

‘Behind the Lines’ Solo exhibition Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

‘A Celebration of British Sculpture’  Harold Martin Botanic Gardens, Leicester

‘British Silver Week 2009’, various venues, London

‘Fire and Brimstone’ Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire. One of twelve sculptors invited to experiment with the

casting process at Pangolin Editions foundry

Sculptors’ Prints’ Part of Impress ’09 National Printmaking Festival, Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

2008

One of 50 artists invited to take part in ‘Sterling Stuff II’ Pangolin London, Kings Place, London

‘Image’ collaborative exhibition with photographer Steve Russell at the Campden Gallery, Gloucestershire

 2006

One of three artists invited to contribute to ‘Animals and Birds’, Jubilee Park, Canary Wharf, London

‘Art London’, Chelsea, London, solo exhibition

2005

‘Odd Birds and Other Selves’ solo exhibition of recent work, Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire.

Catalogue introduced by Professor Colin Rhodes, author of Primitivism and Modern Art and Outsider Art,

Spontaneous Alternatives

‘Out of the Melting Pot’ invited group of artists working in bronze, Parc Heintz, Luxembourg

2003

Invited to exhibit in ‘BLOK’ Festival of Sculpture, Canterbury

One of fifty artists invited by Gallery Pangolin to make work to be cast into silver for ‘Sterling Stuff’,

also exhibited at the Sigurjon Olafsson Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland and the Royal Academy, London

2002

Invited to exhibit in the Fantastic Animals exhibition at the Donjon de Vez, Paris, France

Contributor to Thinking Big: Small Work for Large Projects at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice, Italy

2001

Commissioned to make a sculpture for the main collection of Sculpture at Goodwood, East Sussex

2000

Commissioned to produce a sculpture for the year-long Millennium exhibition BRONZE: contemporary sculpture in bronze

held in Holland Park,London

Intimate Connections solo show, Gallery Pangolin, Gloucestershire

1999

Chosen to contribute to The Shape of the Century: 100 years of Sculpture in Britain shown at Salisbury Cathedral

and Canary Wharf, London

 

Selected Recent Commissions

2008  Out of the Blue 525cm high steel commission for Odyssey Complex, Belfast, design accepted, funding applied for

2007  Ship to Shore  300cm high bronze commissioned for Portishead Quays, North Somerset

2005  Aurora 50cm high bronze purchased for the Haberdasher’s Livery Hall, City of London

2004  Flat Out 200cm high bronze commissioned for the Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health, Bristol University

2002  Family 170cm high bronze purchased for Paddington Central Development, London

2001  Equilibrium, 165cm high bronze purchased for Milton Keynes General Hospital

2000  In the Swim 200cm high bronze commissioned for West Quay Shopping Centre, Southampton

          Family 170cm high bronze purchased for Milton Keynes General Hospital

1999  Returning to Embrace 150cm high bronze purchased for the permanent collection of Canary Wharf, London

1998  Embracing the Sea 300cm high bronze commissioned for the entrance to Deal Pier, Kent

1996  New Age 90cm high bronze commissioned for the New Consulate General Building in Hong Kong

 

Publications

Sculpture at Canary Wharf: A Decade of Exhibitions

Canary Wharf PLC 2011

ISBN: 978 0 9563648 1 4

Making A Point: The Point of Making

Rungwe Kingdon Pangolin 2011

ISBN: 978 0 9570417

Public Sculpture of Bristol (Public Sculpture of Britain)

Douglas Merrit, Francis Greenacre, Katherine Eustice 2010

ISBN-10: 1846316383

ISBN-13: 978 1846316388

Bronze Sculpture – Casting and Patination – Mud Fire Metal

Steve Hurst  Schiffer Publishing Ltd  2005

ISBN: 0 7643 2164 1

Modern British Sculpture

Guy Portelli   Schiffer Publishing Ltd  2005

ISBN: 0 7643 2111 0

Sculpture at Goodwood – British Contemporary Sculpture 02/03

Sculpture at Goodwood

ISBN: 0 9537794 1 6

A Vision for Twenty First Century British Sculpture

Sculpture at Goodwood  2002

ISBN: 0 9537794 2 4

Concepts for Twenty First Century British Sculpture:Thinking Big

Sculpture at Goodwood  2002

ISBN: 0 9537794 3 2

Bronze: Contemporary British Sculpture Holland Park

Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Libraries & Arts Service  2000

ISBN: 0 902242 19 9

The Alchemy of Sculpture

Tony Birks-Hay  Marston House  1998 and 2004

ISBN: 1 899296 07 7 (Hardback)

1 899296 20 4 (Paperback)

The Encyclopedia of Sculpting Techniques

John Plowman   Running Press  1995

ISBN: 1 5613853 2 8

Art for Public Places

Malcolm Miles  Winchester School of Art Press  1989

ISBN: 0 9506783 8 4

Superhumanism 2 – A Survey of a Current Art Movement

Nicholas Treadwell Publications 1982

ISBN: 0 907932 01 0